Story+1984-07-08+Cleveland,+OH

(Kid Leo: “Good evening, I’m Kid Leo (?) it’s been a long time, let’s make it short and sweet: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band”)(crowd cheers)…”
 * 08.07.84 Cleveland, OH, intro to “Born in the U.S.A”**

“Long time no see (crowd cheers) oh, thank you (crowd cheers)…”
 * 08.07.84 Cleveland, OH, intro to “Atlantic City”**

“Anybody ever been on the New Jersey Turnpike? (crowd cheers) alright…I was driving down from north Jersey to…to the Shore and… it was about three am…and I was just kind of humming along, I was feeling pretty good…just going a little bit over the speed limit, only a little bit (chuckles) and…I was sitting there dreaming about… a ham-and-cheese sandwich (crowd cheers) when I’d get home, I was imaging going to my refrigerator…picking out the ham, picking out the cheese (crowd cheers) putting it on that little bread…sitting down in front of the TV…I was so happy (chuckles)(crowd cheers) and then…I see those little red lights in my rearview mirror…so I pulled over…so, like, I’m the kind of person, like, I always forget my wallet, you know…I never have my wallet with me…so he comes over, says “Keep them hands on the steering wheel…License, registration”…I say “Sir, I don’t have my license and registration with me”…so he took my name and he went and got back in the car and he calls me back in about five minutes, he says “Hey, are, are you that rock’n’roll singer?” (crowd cheers) I said “Yeah, yeah, that’s me, that’s me!”…he says “You, did you write that “Born to Run”-song, is that your song?” (crowd cheers) I said “Yeah, yeah, that’s me, I did that”…he says “Yeah, you know, I got some of your albums at home,” I said “You do?” he says “Yeah,” says “Son, you’re in a lot of trouble” (crowd cheers)(?) I had all the unpaid tickets but, you see, really I’d paid them all already (chuckles) but they took me down to the police station, then they kind of kept me there and impounded my truck and, uh, these things happen, you know, but anyway, I was inspired (chuckles)…and as I sat there, I thought to myself…well, I had the carburettor… (…) But anyway, they finally let my out on my own recognizance but they kept the truck…so I was walking down the highway… around 4.30 and there was this little café…and I went inside…and there was this little waitress…and she said “Don’t worry, Darling… ‘cause we’re open…all night”…”
 * 08.07.84 Cleveland, OH, intro to “Open All Night”**

“Oh yes…it’s lonely out there…”
 * 08.07.84 Cleveland, OH, after “Open All Night”**

“Oh yeah, “Darlington County”…when things go bad (?)…gotta take a road trip…”
 * 08.07.84 Cleveland, OH, intro to “Darlington County”**

“Take it easy now…ah, that’s right…oh yeah…gonna do this song… for the Cleveland Boys (crowd cheers) the now legendary Cleveland Boys, Joey and Jimmy…this is a song about, uh…it seems like…the older you get, the more people try to convince you that you had a great time when you were younger…I don’t know why that is… ”Youth is wasted on the young” and all that stuff (chuckles) but every once in a while I’ll be out someplace and I’ll meet somebody, like, I went to high school with…and they say “Bruce, how you doing, how’s the band, how’s everything going?”…and you’ll sit down with them and they’ll say “Man, we used to have such a great time back then”…”You remember the time you were out with that girl you really liked and we went to that restaurant and that guy spilled all the beer on you and you got mad and then he knocked you out?...Man, that was fun! Oh, that was a great time”…and you go “Oh, yeah, that was, that was a lot of fun” (chuckles) I don’t know…the worst part is you want to agree with him, you know, yeah…anyway, this is about old times, old friends, getting old, staying young…and all that good stuff…are you ready, boys?...are you ready, girls?...that’s the question…”
 * 08.07.84 Cleveland, OH, intro to “Glory Days”**

“This is a song…that, uh…I guess I thought I was writing about the town I grew up in but, uh…it seems like the older you get sometimes the more you realize that…you can’t run and you can’t hide (chuckles)(?) whether it’s a responsibility you have to your wife or your family or your brother or your girlfriend or the town you grew up in…and…and everything that gets done…you know, we, we somehow, it gets done somehow in our name…and I guess we, we all share kind of the shame and the glory of the best and the worst of it…”
 * 08.07.84 Cleveland, OH, intro to “My Hometown”**

“We’re gonna take a short break and then we’re gonna be back to mess with you…”
 * 08.07.84 Cleveland, OH, after “Thunder Road”**

“Yeah, thanks (crowd cheers)(?)…this is, uh…this is a song about old cars…I remember when I was a kid, me and my sister used to get real excited when my old man’d say “Ok, we’re going down to pick out a new car”…what he meant by a new car was anything on the used car lot that didn’t cost more than 500 dollars…but it was still pretty exciting because when I was a kid, I only wanted two things, I wanted a pony – everybody wanted a pony (chuckles)(?) and I wanted a convertible (crowd cheers) me and my sister, we used to beg, we used to beg so hard for my Pop to get a convertible…and we’d go down and we’d always come back, like, with a Rambler, a Studebaker, you know, hard-top…but we used to get him back because me and my sister found the exact spot in the backseat where no matter what we did while he was driving he couldn’t reach us (crowd cheers) back there, he was trying to reach back…everybody knows where that spot is (chuckles) anyway…”
 * 08.07.84 Cleveland, OH, intro to “Used Cars”**

“Now the story goes…I was brought up Catholic…and the first thing they teach you is…that there was this Garden of Eden and there was Adam and there was Eve…Eve had the apple…Adam took the bite of the apple…and here we are tonight…now…when I was in one of my great philosophical moods…I started to ponder this question… I said “Well…Garden of Eden…now…would I rather be in the Garden of Eden or would I rather be on Earth?”…(?)…now in the Garden of Eden…or on Earth, we got air-conditioning…Saturday night (crowd cheers) cheeseburgers (crowd cheers) girls (crowd cheers) and if we were in the Garden of Eden, we wouldn’t get to watch the Big Man wear all these fancy suits (crowd cheers) I don’t know…I’m an Earth man…that’s about the size of it…so…I was thinking about all this stuff…and I figured out…well, you might think I’m foolish…”
 * 08.07.84 Cleveland, OH, intro to “Pink Cadillac”**

“Alright…if you came down with a good friend…here’s a dedication to you, alright…”
 * 08.07.84 Cleveland, OH, intro to “Bobby Jean”**

“I used lie awake at night…I used to lie awake at night…wishing… you’d come back (?)…I remember we said that…if you made it, you was gonna help me…and if I made it, I was gonna help you…come back, Baby, come back…come back, Baby, come back…”
 * 08.07.84 Cleveland, OH, middle of “Backstreets”**

“Ladies and gentlemen…children of all ages…we got with us tonight a festival of stars on stage (crowd cheers) beginning to my far left… Mr. E=MC2, the smartest member of the band (?) he’s smart…the only member of the band with a full high school diploma…so let’s hear it for education and Professor Roy Bittan (crowd cheers) on vocals…from Asbury Park, New Jersey: Miss Patti Scialfa (crowd cheers) on the drums, the man with the heat, the beat, author of the soon-to-be-bestselling “The Big Beat”: Mighty Max Weinberg on the drums (crowd cheers) the man with the thunder from down under, on the bass Mr. Garry W. Tallent (crowd cheers) on the organ, the most mysterious member of the band…Phantom Dan Federici (crowd cheers) he’s a man of mystery…then…(?) here on this stage tonight…a man who’s brought you great rock’n’roll over the past ten years (?) drum roll, please, Nils Lofgren on guitar… (Nils does his trampoline stunt)(crowd cheers) that’s incredible… and last but not least (crowd cheers) do I have to say his name? (crowd cheers) do I have to say his name? (crowd cheers) give me a C-L-A-R-E-N-C-E, what’s that spell? (crowd: “Clarence”) what’s that spell? (crowd: “Clarence”) what’s that spell? (crowd: “Clarence”) Clarence “Big Man” Clemons (crowd cheers)…”
 * 08.07.84 Cleveland, OH, middle of “Rosalita”**

“Hey, now, come on, everybody, clap your hands…ah, you’re looking good…come and sing a song, won’t take long (?)…”
 * 08.07.84 Cleveland, OH, intro to “I’m a Rocker”**

“Thanks, I’d like to thank everybody for coming down tonight, thank you very much (crowd cheers) I guess we’ve been, we’ve been coming here for a pretty long time now (crowd cheers) you guys were one of the, one of the first cities that really, really showed us some support when we started long ago (crowd cheers) (?)…(?)(chuckles) I just wanna say thanks, we appreciate it and, uh …when I was growing up, I guess I heard one thing when I heard Elvis Presley’s singing or when I heard the great music that was on the radio and it was just saying…uh, had a simple message, it kind of said “Let freedom ring”…and that’s what this is all about, remember you gotta fight for it…”
 * 08.07.84 Cleveland, OH, intro to “Born to Run”**

“Hold it, boys…wait a minute…if I don’t stop…I’m gonna drop…you gotta be tired now (crowd: “No”)…take it easy, gentlemen…oh yeah …I was home…I was laying in my bed…had my window open…there was a little breeze coming in…the night was real dark and starry… (?)…and then…then way off in the distance…I heard a train…I tried to roll over and go back to sleep…(?)…(?) I heard the train…and it just kept saying…I heard a train coming down the track…”
 * 08.07.84 Cleveland, OH, middle of “Detroit Medley”**

//Compiled by Johanna Pirttijärvi//